Andy Serkis sheds light on the dark Supreme Leader Snoke

The most mysterious figure in this new STAR WARS trilogy is easily Supreme Leader Snoke, the deformed, mangled, shadowy-puppeteer who appeared only in hologram form in FORCE AWAKENS. Now we’ll get to see him in the flesh in STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, and actor Andy Serkis opened up about Snoke’s emotional state and history and how that affects his dealings with General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).

The motion capture guru sat down with EW to talk about the powerful Snoke, and he says that this time around he’s much more vicious and is not going easy on Ren after the powerful Sith lost his battle with a newcomer to the Force, Rey (Daisy Ridley):

His training of Kylo Ren is not yielding what he wants. Therefore his anger towards Kylo Ren is intensified because he can’t bear weakness in others. Part of the manipulation is goading him with Hux and playing them off against each other.

This anger and hatred of weakness are directly related to something that happened to Snoke in the past, which no doubt caused his apparent injuries. He hates the Resistance and projects that hatred and emotional damage on Ren and Hux:

The thing about Snoke is that he is extremely strong with the Force, the dark side of the Force. He’s terribly powerful, of course. But he is also a very vulnerable and wounded character. He has suffered and he has suffered injury. The way that his malevolence comes out is in reaction to that. His hatred of the Resistance is fueled by what’s happened to him personally.

Serkis is master of motion capture, and he’s no stranger to altering his physicality in extreme ways for a role. Snoke is left crippled and broken, and Serkis said his outbursts are restricted by that physicality. In order to get that just right he had a special way of bringing Snoke’s mangled form to life:

The only thing I did use was across his jaw. His jaw is completely mangled and the left side of his face is mauled. So I had a way of taping down the lefthand side of my mouth to restrict the lip movement on that side.

But no matter how malevolent and sinister Snoke is, there is a sense of grandeur to the character, and Serkis even said his taste for the finer things in life makes him a departure from Emperor Palpatine:

You know, he’s not afraid of showing his fineries. There is a luxury that’s native to him. You can see it in his throne room, and his scarlet-armored Praetorian Guard. The way that his court is presented, he’s very totalitarian in that way and flamboyant He enjoys that theatricality, I think.

Rey's true parentage has been the subject of much speculation, but I don't think there are more fan theories out there for any of the new characters than Snoke. Everyone and their nerdy mothers have a theory as to who he could be and what his history is. Given his age and strength, he has to have had some connection to the likes of Palpatine and Vader, so my money is on some sort of backstory that links to the original trilogy. We may not get answers this time around, but we will for sure by the third entry in this trilogy. This time around, though, we will see inside Snoke's walk-in closet, which will be neat.

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI arrives December 15.